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Doomsday Machine
Armageddon 1975 / Doomsday
USA 1972
produced by
Harry Hope, Oscar Nichols (executive) for First Leisure
directed by Harry Hope, Lee Sholem
starring Bobby Van, Ruta Lee, Mala Powers, James Craig, Grant Williams, Henry Wilcoxon, Essie Lin Chia, Casey Kasem, Lori Scott, Denny Miller, Mike Farrell, John Cestare, Raymond Mayo, Frank Gambina, Mark Bailey, Leo Ramirez, Anthony Loder, Win De Lugo, Gábor Curtiz, Mary Meade French, Josh Peine, Steven Roberts, Michael Christian, Robert Swan, Ted Markland, Karl Bruck, Skip Battyn
written by Stuart J. Byrne, special effects by David L. Hewitt
review by
Mike Haberfelner
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Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
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The American secret service ahs just found out that the Chinese have
started the Doomsday Machine, a machine that causes a chain
reaction that will ultimately destroy earth ... so gouvernment officials
decide to use a spaceship to Venus as a kind of modern Noah's Ark,
replacing almost half of the male crew of the probe with women ... In
the spaceship, tensions between the male and female members of the
expedition soon arise, especially since only two female members - Doc
Turner (Ruta Lee) and Major Bronski (Mala Powers) - know about their real
purpose of their mission ... but when the whole crew sees earth explode,
that's a shock for everyone, especially Captain Mason (Grant Williams),
who from now on desperately tries to act as the Alpha male and rape Lt
Carlson (Lori Scott), even though he's more shell-shocked than the rest of
them. Eventually, the scientist of the expedition, the slightly older
Doc Perry (Henry Wilcoxon) finds out the spaceship is too heavy to
actually make it into Venus' atmosphere and figures four of them have to
go ... which eventually leads to Mason getting into a fight with Carlson
which accidently sucks them both out of the airlock. With two crewmembers
gone already, Commander Price (Denny Miller) decides to risk it and try to
enter Venus' atmosphere with five men (and women) aboard - but in the last
minute, the probe needs some outside fixing, and even though that means he
couldn't get back in in time for descending to Venus, Danny (Bobby Van)
agrees to do the job ... and Major Bronski, who has fallen in love with
him, decides to help him on a whim, even if that means she can't join the
landing party neither. Once their fate seems sealed, Danny and Bronski
find themselves in luck though, when they find a Russian Venus probe
nearby that might be manned by a corpse but is still functioning. Entering
the atmosphere, the spaceship of commander Price and co is destroyed
though, while the collective consciousness of Venus tells Danny and
Bronski, last of the humans, that they cannot land on the planet, but a
great future awaits them at the fringes of the universe or something ... What
a silly film. Granted, it might reflect cold war fears, but the whole
Noah's Ark storyline is a bit far-fetched to say the least. The whole
thing is of course not helped by an uninspired directorial effort, an
unremarkable script and unmotivated actors either. What makes this film
kind of funny though is that it uses special effects scenes from Wizards
of Mars and the Japanese end-of-the-world flick Gorath
- including spaceflight sequences from both films, and the spaceships in
the two movies look so remarkably little alike it's almost hilarious.
Also, the film was originally shot in 1967, but then money ran out and
production was resumed five years later, and the added espionage footage
is ill at ease with the space opera storyline. All of this makes the
film sort of endearing on a so-bad-it's-good level, but be warned, it's
nto the best bad film you've ever seen.
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find Doomsday Machine at adultvideouniverse.com
